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Dave Corbeau said the river anchorage at the Pine Point Co-Op is clogged with sand and barely passable at low tide. Around 60 boats, both recreational and commercial fishermen, launch from Pine Point each day, Corbeau said.

“The lobster boats that drop 3 feet just can’t get back and forth with the tides the way they are. So they have to wait for the tides. When it’s low tide or minus tide, they can’t go, they have to wait hours to get in and out of the river,” Corbeau said.

Scarborough started a $1.7 million project to dredge the river and pump sand to a nearby beach, but several setbacks have caused the contractor to miss the March 31 completion deadline.

Now, marine officials are presented with another problem, since dredging is not allowed from April through October because of the piping plover nesting season. The plovers are an endangered species and are federally protected.

Last July, an unleashed dog killed a plover chick on Pine Point Beach. After much controversy the town instituted a leash ordinance, restricting when dogs are allowed on public beaches. It’s now up to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine if the dredging project should go forward and if the town has done enough to ensure the protected birds' safety.

A federal spokesperson said Fish and Wildlife expects to release a decision on the project shortly. Corbeau is hopeful the project will be able to continue in November; until then he’s trying to warn boaters.

“We try to go out on the water a lot more to get people to slow down and give them a flier at the boat launch to tell them that depths of the water is less than a foot at some times and to get them educated until we get this dredge done and the job done.”